The Common Reading Program hosts speaker Kyla Allen-Grant on her experience as a Peace Corps volunteer on Tues. Nov. 1, at 7 p.m. in Todd 130. The public is welcome at this free event.

Allen-Grant, a WSU alumna and WSU’s Peace Corp representative, will speak on her personal experiences in the Peace Corps. Through her volunteering experience in Togo, a country in West Africa, she has gained first-hand experience of the challenges girls face and the importance of educational access. She will go into the specifics of her work in Togo. In addition to talking about her projects in Togo, Allen-Grant will also share avenues for exploring Peace Corps service.

PULLMAN, Wash.—The tenth annual Common Reading Invited Lecture at 7:30 p.m. Tues., Sept. 27 in the CUB M.G. Carey Senior Ballroom will feature Khalida Brohi, Pakistani activist for women’s rights, global speaker, and founder of the Sughar Empowerment Society and Foundation to help educate and empower women. The public is welcome.

“Ms. Brohi is an acclaimed advocate for the improvement of the lives of women in her country, and she works every day to bring positive changes to that nation and its culture,” said Karen Weathermon, co-director of the Common Reading Program, lecture sponsor and a unit of WSU Undergraduate Education.

“Much of her life parallels that of her fellow Pakistani activist, Malala Yousafzai, the author of I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban, this year’s common reading book for thousands of WSU first-year and other students at campuses in Pullman, Tri-Cities, Spokane, and Puget Sound/Everett, and the Global Campus,” said Susan Poch, program co-director.

The Washington State University Common Reading Program hosts “Women’s Engineering Participation in Diverse Cultural Contexts,” a lecture by Julie Kmec and Nehal Abu-Lail on Tues. Oct. 11 at 7:30 p.m. in CUE 203. The presentation is free and open to the public.

Kmec, professor of sociology, and Abu-Lail, associate professor of chemical engineering and bioengineering, will present preliminary research on a collaborative project that seeks to identify the factors that shape women’s relatively high levels of engineering participation in some predominantly Muslim countries.

The presenters were recently named as principal investigator and co-principal investigator, respectively, on a two-year, $589,200 grant funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to investigate the subject.